The Inevitable End
by The Ficsmith
Summary: Piper saw it coming. She knew it couldn't last, but she still let herself get swept up. She let herself believe, if only for a little while. Piper/Annabeth, Pipabeth, Femslash


**The Inevitable End **

**Main Pairing: Pipabeth (Piper/Annabeth) **

**Summary: Piper saw it coming. She knew it couldn't last, but she still let herself get swept up. She let herself believe, if only for a little while. **

**A.N: This is pretty out of character in some spots, but after reading Under Grey Skies by Balthazars (Great Valgrace fic that I highly recommend. It's right here on ffn) I just had this need for some cheating and inevitable unhappy endings. **

* * *

Piper knows that it's unhealthy: the way that her heart does somersaults and her crotch heats when Annabeth so much as smiles at her but _she can't help it._ She can't help the way Annabeth's laughter and tears are both contagious, and her feelings have turned to much more friendship. Piper can't help the way her confused feelings have latched on to the beautiful girl who is not only her friend, but also, _attached. _

* * *

Oh yes, Annabeth Chase is _very _much attached. She started dating the camp's golden boy after the war, and she never stopped. Percy, almost definitely at Jason's old camp, pervades Piper's thoughts of Annabeth.  
"But Percy," she thinks whenever she feels herself getting carried away.  
Annabeth mourns her missing boyfriend like the dead: a sense of dread, uneasiness and grief saturating the air wherever she goes.  
But apparently, Annabeth's grieving period was shorter than Piper anticipated.

* * *

One day, Piper can't help it anymore. She gives in. Piper kisses Annabeth full on the mouth. She presses her lips against the missing Hero of Olympus's girlfriend and in that moment she just doesn't care anymore. She doesn't care about Percy or his thoughts. She's sure that Annabeth will push her away any moment, so she drinks in Annabeth's flavor, like salt and honey and the strawberries that grow in the camp's fields. To her surprise, Annabeth digs her fingers into Piper's hair and kisses right back.

* * *

They don't talk about Percy. They don't talk about how he's at the Roman Camp while his girlfriend's making out with another girl, cuddling with another girl, fucking another girl. Piper just tries to forget that Percy's in the picture at all, because Annabeth promised- she promised to break it off with Percy when they get to Camp Jupiter. Right now, she's the mistress. It's not a great arrangement, but Piper can live with it. Because it promises her a future full of brighter horizons.

She ignores the guilty pull in her stomach and the ominous feeling in the wind.

* * *

Annabeth's curls are like silken sunshine in her fingers. Her hair spreads across Piper's tanned belly like star-shine, a golden galaxy just coming into being.  
"Your stomach is soft," Annabeth states quietly.  
"All the better for pillowing your head," Piper says with a grin.  
"It'll because you're flabby," Annabeth replies.  
"It is not-" Annabeth cuts her off.  
"Yeah it is."  
"Like you're any better," Piper replies with a snort.  
"I have abs," Annabeth says, pointing to her own well-toned belly.  
"That doesn't-"  
"Abs," Annabeth replies as if it explains everything. Piper doesn't know. Hell, maybe it does.  
But Piper digs her fingers into Annabeth's stomach and tickles her until she's squirming underneath her. Annabeth elbows her in the stomach and for a moment Piper can't breathe.  
"Are you alright?" Annabeth asks.  
"Yeah," Piper responds with a smirk, "you just took my breath away. Annabeth rolls her eyes.  
"You're an idiot," she states.  
"But I'm your idiot," Piper says.

Annabeth doesn't respond.

* * *

"I want to build something like that," Annabeth says, pointing out the Parthenon in the book of travel destinations, "a monument to weather eternity." Piper thinks to ask her if she thinks they might last that long, but holds her tongue. She isn't sure that she wants to hear the response.

* * *

Piper has her tongue lodged deep within Annabeth, lapping at her folds as the coarse, blonde curls tickle her face. Annabeth is digging her fingers into Piper's hair, coming closer and closer to the edge with ever swipe of Piper's tongue.  
Annabeth breaths, "Faster." Piper gives one last quick, firm stroke of her tongue and Annabeth spills with an ear-splitting scream.

* * *

"I love you," Piper says.

"I love you," Annabeth lies.

* * *

Piper runs her fingers through Annabeth's golden hair. The impending arrival at Camp Jupiter remains the elephant in the room. The pair sits in comfortable silence, Piper, ever the impulsive one, has to break it.  
"Why haven't you told anyone?" Piper asks.  
"They don't really need to know," Annabeth replies, groping for an appropriate response. "It's private." Piper feels a sense of dread flow through her.  
"You're not going to break up with Percy tomorrow, are you?" She asks. Annabeth doesn't respond. Piper removes her fingers from Annabeth's hair.  
"You don't love me," she says plainly: a statement, not a question. Annabeth opens her mouth to answer.  
"Gods damn it, Annabeth," Piper shouts, "I thought that I meant something to you."  
"You do, present tense," she says, finally finding her words.  
"But I'm not Percy fucking Jackson," Piper retorts. The ensuing silence is deafening.  
"I love you," Annabeth finally says in a tone filled with uncertainness, as of even she isn't sure if it's a lie.  
"Not like you love him," Piper flings back at her. Annabeth doesn't deny it.  
"You were always going to drop me when we found him," Piper spits. Piper turns her back to storm out of the room.

Annabeth doesn't stop her.

* * *

"I knew you should never get involved with a terrifying blonde," Leo replies bitterly, "I knew she was gonna hurt you."  
Piper looks at him and lets out a bitter laugh, "that's the funny part. I did too."  
"I knew from the moment I kissed her," Piper said, "Hell- I knew from the moment I-I."  
She takes a deep breath, "I knew from the moment I fell in love with her."  
Leo looks at her and she can see the empathy in his eyes.  
"I knew too, you know," he replied, "When I fell in love with Jace. Hell, I knew it wouldn't last. But at least I got him for a little while before he remembered he had a super-hot Roman gf."  
"Nothing lasts forever," Piper says softly biting on her lip to keep back the tears.  
"Not even the best machines," Leo quotes sadly in response. Piper tries to forget their fallen friend but it calls more unwelcome thoughts to her mind.  
Nothing lasts forever. Not even the best architecture. Not even Annabeth and her desire to build permanence.  
Leo smiles a sad smile at her.  
"Eh," he says, trying his hardest to make her smile, "I know that I ain't much, but I'll stick by you 'til the end of time. That's what friends do, right?"  
Piper isn't positive, because she's had so few friends. But she spares him a smile- a real smile and she lets herself fall over his lap. She pokes him in the stomach and they laugh lightly.  
"Course," she says, "I'll nurse your heartbreak if you nurse mine." Leo sticks out his pinky and they swear as Piper ignores the empty feeling in her chest.

* * *

When Leo wakes on the Argo II all dizzy and confused at the sight of Piper, Percy, and Annabeth, the words spill from his mouth.  
"Your girlfriend fucked Piper," he slurs, "fucked, dated, and broke her heart. Annabeth broke her gods damned heart." Annabeth looks embarrassed, but not regretful. Piper feels her face flush and her throat constrict. The tears she has held in start to fall. Percy looks absolutely shell-shocked. Leo has already passed out again.  
"Wait," floods Percy's lips, "you're shitting me, right?" No one replies.  
"It was nothing," Annabeth says, not at all penitent. She says it right in front of Piper, right there in front of her. Percy just stares at her, but Piper can see the forgiveness in his eyes.  
Percy believes her. For the first time in forever, Piper is sure that Annabeth's telling the truth. Her heart breaks a little bit more. She doesn't even grace her ex-lover with an insult as she slips out the door.

* * *

Piper tells herself that she doesn't miss Annabeth. She tells herself that this doesn't hurt. This time, she's the one who's lying.


End file.
